By Nisar Dharma
Srinagar, Mar 26: Reluctant to give up its boring routine, DD Kashir (DDK), a round-the-clock government television, is telecasting outdated programmes that its viewers consider a “waste of time”.
Except for the morning show and a few government sponsored bulletins, which together make not more than 2-3 hours of screen time, the regional channel relies on playing programmes in loops.
The situation is unimproved despite the government of India planning Rs 40-crore revamp of the channel the last September, aiming to air Kashmiri version of the highly-rated game-show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ and, also, movies.
“That project has not materialised, so far,” a source in DDK told The Kashmir Monitor.
“At present, there is hardly anything fresh being telecast for audiences’ entertainment. We either have news, ‘Good Morning JK’, and a current-affairs programme to talk of.”
The obsoleteness of the DDK content has dissuaded even the fans of Kashmiri songs or serials aired only by the station.
Ghulam Nabi Tantray, a retired government employee living in Nowgam, said he was an avid watcher of Kashmiri dramas and music shows.
“Now, I skim through hundreds of channels and find nothing interesting for myself,” he said. “Watching DDK is a complete waste of time.”
The productivity and quality is bound to nose-dive for a channel that continues to drag along a liability of at least Rs 25 crore abetting out of an unresolved multi-crore scam, which surfaced in it between 2009 and 2012.
The scam, being enquired by the CBI, involved allotment of programmes to undeserving ‘producers’, most of whom were known to the accused.
Consequently, Prasar Bharti hasn’t released funds for new productions to the station, forcing the latter to run obsolete shows produced by the people nearing retirement.
G D Tahir, Head of Programmes at DDK, confirmed that all the entertainment shows being aired were all repeated telecasts.
“We are meeting the Kendra guidelines when it comes to airing informative and current affairs programmes. But it is true that we do not air any new entertainment shows,” he said.
Tahir said that DDK faced paucity of funds as it was unable to generate revenue proportional to the funds made available by the government of India.
“Other Kendras are able to generate crores of rupees. We, on the other hand, are hardly able to earn anything,” he said.
DDK, as per Tahir, generated a revenue of Rs 80 lakh last year against a set “and deflated” target of Rs 1 crore.
“The revenue mostly comes from some advertisements from the state government departments,” he said. “The liability caused by the scam has really dented the channel.”
